Troy

TROY, TEXAS (Freestone County). Troy, also known as Pine Bluff, was near the Trinity River and Cook Lake twelve miles east of Fairfield in eastern Freestone County. The town was established about 1847 by M. Bateman, and the original settlers consisted of about ten or twelve families. The first post office in the county was established at Troy on November 4, 1850, and the first Masonic lodge in 1852. A church was organized in 1854. Troy attracted a large number of planters and farmers and was seen by some as an ideal place to settle. Area soils ranged from coarse and sandy to rich, dark riverbottom. Timber was abundant, and springwater was available nearby. Rolling hills offered good terrain for house building, and the Trinity River made the site attractive as a shipping point. During the 1850s and 1860s Troy was the most important town in the county. It was a port for steamboats traveling the Trinity River, a point of departure for roads leading to Houston, and the mail town of the county. The town started to dwindle, however, after a new ferry stop was built at Magnolia in Anderson County. The Troy Masonic lodge was moved to Rocky Spring, and the post office was closed in 1866. Nothing remained of the community in 1936.